Homeowners have had a long felt need to monitor the daily energy consumption. Currently homeowners adjust their energy consumption by their past energy bills, such as evaluating a previous month's electric bill. It is very difficult for consumers to make immediate changes to the energy consumption by having to wait to the end of the month when they get a monthly bill in order adjust their energy usage.
Various patents have been proposed over the years. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,115 to Boldridge, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,853 to Fisher; U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,704 to Konicek et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,181 to Swanson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,632 to Frew et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,587 to Green; U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,462 to Whitehead, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,895 to Murr; U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,139 to Allen et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,331 to Lewis et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,903 to Shuey et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,464 to Vrionis; U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,051 to Provost et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,369,719 to Tracy et al. These proposed devices have many problems.
For example, many of the devices require attaching a monitoring device directly to the glass type cover of the utility meter, or require portions of the monitoring device be inserted inside the utility meter. See for example Boldridge, Jr. '115 and Green '587. A problem with these devices is that they are generally illegal in many jurisdictions which prohibit utility meters from being tampered with by obstructing and/or modifying the utility meter box itself. Thus, most of these devices cannot be legally used. Furthermore, the cost of the device components and extra labor time to install these devices makes them further impractical to be used. Finally, many of these devices can obstruct the rotating disk so that meter readers are delayed from taking a reading when needed or emergency personnel cannot remove the meter if required during an emergency.
Many other monitoring devices rely on reading the black line on the rotating meter wheel. See for example Whitehead, Jr. '462. These devices have problems such as the alignment of the black mark line so that it can be read. Additionally, these devices have inherent problems for false readings, and the like. Furthermore, these devices do not give real-time readings since the monitor has to wait until the black line on the rotating disk passes by the sensor.
Furthermore many of these consumer monitor devices referred to above also require installation by electricians and/or by utility company employees. Furthermore, these hardwired systems can require that power to the residence be turned off during installation of the monitoring device. Still furthermore, many of these devices can malfunction during power shortages, to the residence.
Portable proposed devices have other problems, For example, the portable monitoring devices are limited to professional meter readers, and cannot be adapted for residential use, and do not allow for displaying power usage, history usage, and projected future usage. See for example Frew et al. '632. Thus, there exists the need for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.